


a few things to do

by suzukiblu



Series: firebender!Jet [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Backstory, Firebender!Jet, Firebending & Firebenders, Gen, Hiding in Plain Sight, Mother-Son Relationship, Motherhood, Parent-Child Relationship, Pre-Canon, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 13:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19358128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzukiblu/pseuds/suzukiblu
Summary: Hotaru has no status, but a mercenary does not care for his colony mistress’s status, and he keeps her more than well enough. He’s in and out of her life and in and out of her son’s life, but that’s quite fine with her.





	a few things to do

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little prequel about some stuff that didn’t make it into the main story. This will probably make more sense (and be more emotionally upsetting) if you read that first.

Hotaru has dark skin and long dark hair and wears dark red; she is unmarried but she has a lover and she has a son—her sharp little flint, her bright spark. Her mother was Earth, a war bride, and even in the colony she’s looked down upon because of her dirty blood. But her mother was also very, very beautiful. 

Hotaru has no status, but a mercenary does not care for his colony mistress’s status, and he keeps her more than well enough. He’s in and out of her life and in and out of her son’s life, but that’s quite fine with her. 

He might start thinking Kin was _their_ son, otherwise. Bad enough he’d wanted to name the boy _Goro_ —“fifth son”, as _if_ Hotaru would allow that—and bad enough he insists on all the silly lessons the boy will never need. Hotaru would never neglect her son’s education, and at this age teaching him how to trick people into liking him despite his muddy blood and mediocre heritage is certainly more important than teaching him to read and write High Fire. The firebending practice Hotaru does not mind, though; she is no bender herself but she understands the importance of a child having something physical to do with other children. In the same vein, she shows him a few things to do with swords—no one ever regretted having a spare way to kill. 

Then the sifu comes to her apartments, looking bemused and frustrated and slightly disgusted to be there, and tells her she’s out of things to teach the boy. 

“I’m sorry?” Hotaru asks, red-lipped smile quizzical. 

“The boy has mastered every bending form we are allowed to teach in the colonies,” the sifu clarifies tersely. Hotaru does not know much about firebending, but she does know that none of the children of this colony have ever been called “masters” of _any_ firebending form. “He has mastered forms we are _not_ allowed to teach in the colonies by merely spying on the guards. His father has sent word that he is to be taken home to learn the next sets. You will gather his things.” 

“Of course,” Hotaru says, still smiling. She does not know much about the Fire Nation as an actual place, but she does know what learning the next sets means—that’s what they say when they give the teenagers to the army. When they give them to the war. 

She steps aside and lets Kin’s sifu in and makes her tea, and then heads into the bedroom and packs the little necessities while the other drinks. 

“Mama?” Kin says, peering into the room. She smiles at him. 

“Yes, love?” 

“Sifu’s downstairs, and she’s sleepin’ on the floor.” 

“Is she really?” Hotaru gives him a smile with teeth in it, and heads over to stroke his hair. “Well isn’t that _silly_ of Sifu.” 

“Yeah!” Kin agrees, laughing, and Hotaru smiles indulgently and hands him his little bag and guides him down the hall. Kin likes his sifu; he would trust her if he were separated from Hotaru and she found him and told him “come with me”. 

Would have trusted. 

Hotaru’s lover, meanwhile, does not spread trust around and at the same time does not doubt that she would obey his word. It’s true that she’s never argued with him, but that doesn’t mean she’s ever done what he wanted. What he _thinks_ he wanted, plenty of times. So he only told Kin’s sifu, it seems, and they leave the colony without any fuss at all. There’s a bit more fuss crossing the border, but nothing a few things with a sword can’t handle. 

They go on for a while. Kin asks questions—he’s always been clever—but Hotaru has experience on him and deflects them with practiced ease, and this keeps up until he finally notices he isn’t getting answers. When she starts introducing them by Earth Kingdom names and dressing them in browns, she sees him just file the new information away and adapt to it. 

Hotaru is endlessly proud of him in that moment. 

When they’re far enough gone to stop she finds a village; a very small Earth Kingdom one that isn’t even on the map. Their skin is dark enough and their hair close to light enough to look properly Earth, and Kin does not resemble his father at all. No one doubts that she is a war widow looking for a place free of all the old, painful memories. 

For a little while, it works.

Then Mongke finds her. 

Hotaru looks out her small quaint hut’s small quaint window at the frightened village she already knows the Rhinos will burn, and then looks at her son. Mongke has not seen him in a long time, she recalls, and he has changed since then. He is taller, less chubby, darker; stronger and smarter and more fleet of foot. Mongke’s men have never seen him at all. Her, but never Kin. 

She cuts his hair, letting it fall clumsy and unbound around his face, and then she tells him what to do.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr!](http://suzukiblu.tumblr.com/)


End file.
